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Staff at University of Cumbria to strike on Thursday

5 July 2016

UCU members at the University of Cumbria will be on strike on Thursday (7 July) as part of a wave of nationwide strikes in a row over pay and conditions.

Striking staff will be on picket lines outside the Fusehill Street campus from 8am and will be lobbying members of various university committees ahead of their meeting with UCU representatives at 12:30pm.

The dispute has arisen following a pay offer of just 1.1% from the universities' employers, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). UCU said universities can afford to pay more and the offer did little to address the real-terms pay cut of 14.5% that members have suffered since 2009.

UCU reps will meet with the chairs of the university board, employment policy group and finance committees to request that they put pressure on the national body UCEA to come back to the negotiating table with a fair pay offer.

Since 2010 the amount spent on staff by universities as a percentage of total income has dropped by 3%. However, the total of cash reserves has rocketed by 72% to stand at over £21bn. The nationwide strikes over pay began with two national strike days in May and now UCU members at separate institutions are striking to disrupt local events such as open days and graduation ceremonies.

UCU representative at the University of Cumbria, Ashley Tiffen, said: 'Our strike action is a result of the employers' failure to deal with the declining real-terms pay of university staff, or tackle the problems of growing numbers of zero-hours contracts and the persistent gender pay gap.

'Members have been left with no alternative but to take this action and we will be asking the senior staff here in Cumbria to take a clear message to the national negotiators that the time has come to move to get this dispute resolved.'